Hand-held exercise devices having at least one wheel on a single axis with hand grips and utilized to strengthen one's midsection by rolling the device along the floor are well known in the art. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,136,867, entitled "Vibrating Exercising Wheel" and issued to Wilkin on Jan. 30, 1979; U.S. Pat. No. 3,403,906, entitled "Exerciser with Grippers on a Roller Mounting Shaft" issued to R. Burzenski on Oct. 1, 1968; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,821,394, entitled "Spring Roller-Type Exerciser" and issued to R. J. M. Barbeau on Jan. 28, 1958. Also known is the "Waist Wheel" produced by Anthony Enterprises of San Francisco, Calif. One method of using these devices is for one to kneel on one's knees and to repeatedly run these devices towards and away from one's self along the floor, keeping one's knees stationary (see FIG. 1 of the Wilkins patent). Exercising repeatedly in this manner will greatly improve and strengthen one's stomach muscles.
However, the above prior art devices are limited in their usage to pushing and pulling in limited directions with respect to one's self. While employing the device in this manner is good for the stomach muscles, it does not exercise or strengthen the muscles used in twisting and turning at the midsection and located on the side of one's midsection.
Hand-held wheeled exercise devices of the type described above that have castors that run along the floor are also well known. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,134,584, issued to Rosenbusch on Jan, 16, 1979; 3,809,393, issued to Jones on May 7, 1974; and 3,796,431, issued to Sinyard on Mar. 12, 1974.
While these prior art devices are not limited to employment in a limited number of directions as the previously described devices, these devices lack the control of a simple wheeled device because of the ability of the castors to go in any direction. Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide a wheeled hand-held exercise device for strengthening one's midsection which can be used in lateral directions as well as in a direction directly in front of the body.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a wheeled hand-held exercise device for strengthening the muscles along the sides of one's midsection.